Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Climbing-Trellising Squash Ideas Welcomed

jmsieglaff · December 26, 2014

I grow vining crops on cattle panels trellis, including squash. I'll throw out my observations/practices with the hope you find a couple useful tidbits. I'd recommend a rigid setup for squash, but it sounds like you have that already built for your cukes.

I've stopped growing winter squash and focus on cucumbers and vining summer squash since we can purchase high quality local winter squash at fairly reasonable prices.

In the past, we grew Butternuts vertically, they climb well and the squash just grew strong stems to support them without any assistance. I also grew the above mentioned Tromboncino--we picked them shortly after flowering as a summer squash and liked them for that purpose, but they are fairly stingy in production. They are a butternut type, so they will fully mature like a butternut. We let one do that, but in a side-by-side preferred the butternut as a winter squash to the Tromboncino. A plus for Tromboncino was it did not suffer problems of SVB.

For summer squash now I do a couple bushes, but also grow Tatume as a summer squash (pick just after flowering at about baseball size) and it climbs well. Tatume hasn't had problems with bugs. We also grow Lemon squash for summer squash, these really don't climb, as much as they produce a single main vine-type stalk that can be tied up/supported as it grows. We like the production and flavor. 2015 will actually be my F1 grow out of a TatumeXLemon cross I did in 2014. I'm hoping for the plant vigor and vining habit of the Tatume, but maybe get a bit of increased production and yellow color from the Lemon squash--that and it is seems like a fun project. As you've noted there isn't a lot out there as breeding efforts have nearly exclusively focused on bush habit--which is great for large growers, but for smaller setups, the vertical approach is nice because so much less room is required.

In the past we grew Table Dainty as a summer squash, it climbed well and when also picked young made a good summer squash. The plants are not as vigorous as Tatume. We liked Tatume and Lemon better, so have focused on those two.

December 26, 2014	#5
jmsieglaff Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Southern WI Posts: 2,742	I grow vining crops on cattle panels trellis, including squash. I'll throw out my observations/practices with the hope you find a couple useful tidbits. I'd recommend a rigid setup for squash, but it sounds like you have that already built for your cukes. I've stopped growing winter squash and focus on cucumbers and vining summer squash since we can purchase high quality local winter squash at fairly reasonable prices. In the past, we grew Butternuts vertically, they climb well and the squash just grew strong stems to support them without any assistance. I also grew the above mentioned Tromboncino--we picked them shortly after flowering as a summer squash and liked them for that purpose, but they are fairly stingy in production. They are a butternut type, so they will fully mature like a butternut. We let one do that, but in a side-by-side preferred the butternut as a winter squash to the Tromboncino. A plus for Tromboncino was it did not suffer problems of SVB. For summer squash now I do a couple bushes, but also grow Tatume as a summer squash (pick just after flowering at about baseball size) and it climbs well. Tatume hasn't had problems with bugs. We also grow Lemon squash for summer squash, these really don't climb, as much as they produce a single main vine-type stalk that can be tied up/supported as it grows. We like the production and flavor. 2015 will actually be my F1 grow out of a TatumeXLemon cross I did in 2014. I'm hoping for the plant vigor and vining habit of the Tatume, but maybe get a bit of increased production and yellow color from the Lemon squash--that and it is seems like a fun project. As you've noted there isn't a lot out there as breeding efforts have nearly exclusively focused on bush habit--which is great for large growers, but for smaller setups, the vertical approach is nice because so much less room is required. In the past we grew Table Dainty as a summer squash, it climbed well and when also picked young made a good summer squash. The plants are not as vigorous as Tatume. We liked Tatume and Lemon better, so have focused on those two. Last edited by jmsieglaff; December 26, 2014 at 11:14 AM.